Tracking down the Well of Souls in Path of Exile 2's new Rise of the Abyssal league is the main way you start engaging with the seasonal mechanics. You'll likely have spotted the green-glowing rifts popping up in each region you explore, challenging you to fight abyssal enemies and earn a special chest at the end with some extra rewards. You might even have earned an Abyssal Bone that promises to desecrate a piece of your gear.
But how exactly do you desecrate items? This is why you'll want to track down the Well of Souls once you arrive in Act 2. Below, I'll explain how to find the well, how the desecration mechanic works, and the best ways to gather the materials you need to actually desecrate your gear and reveal those bonuses.
Where to find the Well of Souls in Path of Exile 2
You can find the Well of Souls in the Mastodon Badlands in Act 2. While in that first area, look for an entrance to a cave called the Lightless Passage and travel through it until you arrive at the well itself. This is essentially a seasonal hub area with an NPC called the Lurking Creature that lets you "desecrate" your equipment, which is the main mechanic of the new Rise of the Abyssal league. If you want to travel back to the well quickly, look for the option on the right side of the map screen when using a waypoint.
How to desecrate equipment in Path of Exile 2
To desecrate rare equipment, you first need to use an Abyssal Bone item like the Gnawed Jawbone to apply an Unrevealed Desecrated Modifier. Once you have that, you can reveal it in the centre of the Well of Souls and choose one of three potential affixes you want to apply to that piece of gear.
There are different bones for each piece of equipment, and you can also earn Omen items and activate them in your inventory to tweak the selection of modifiers you'll get when revealing, letting you tailor things a bit more. So, how do you get these seasonal items? There are a couple of different ways:
- Closing Abyssal Rifts: You may have already gotten some seasonal items by encountering and closing these glowing-green cracks in the ground. These events pop up in most areas and involve killing abyssal enemies until you earn an Abyssal Trove.
- Completing Abyssal Depths: One of the best ways to earn the seasonal items is to complete these areas. Abyssal Depths are special holes you'll find which you can jump into. Inside, you'll fight abyssal enemies and rares with additional modifiers and can get the items above either by opening chests or the Abyssal Troves at the end of the area guarded by some especially challenging rares.
There are likely more ways to earn these materials in the endgame, but these are the primary ways you'll get them during the story. While Abyssal Rifts appear all the time, my first Abyssal Depths popped up in the Titan's Grotto after I found the Well of Souls in Act 2, and I've had two more since then in Act 3 in Azak Bog and the Chimeral Wetlands.
How to unlock Abyssal Lich in Path of Exile 2
Another secret of the Well of Souls is the ability to earn a tweaked Lich ascendancy for the Witch. First, though, you'll need to find a Kulemak's Invitation item, which lets you jump into the Well of Souls itself, where you'll fight the Vessel of Kulemak. It seems you can get this item from Abyssal Commanders in the endgame once you've started mapping, so you'll first have to finish Acts 1, 2, 3, and 4, plus all of the interludes, before it becomes available. You can also purchase one via the currency exchange (I bought mine using Exalted Orbs).
It's worth noting that you'll need to beat a pinnacle boss multiple times and have the Lich ascendancy active in order to do this, so you'll want to be high level and have a strong build (or at least bring someone who does). Here's what you need to do:
- Acquire Kulemak's Invitation.
- Jump into the Well of Souls by interacting with the prompt at the edge.
- Use Kulemak's Invitation to open the door to The Black Cathedral (if you want another player to join you, portal to the Ardura Caravan now and have them enter via the portal). You'll need another invitation if you want to revisit and fight him again.
- Defeat the Vessel of Kulemak that spawns immediately (don't take the reward).
- Defeat the Vessel of Kulemak three more times (each progressively stronger) by activating the corpses sitting on thrones at the end of the arena. (note: the trick to not getting life-drained by the crystals at the sides of the arena is to stand still when they're active).
- Choose to "Return the finger" at the altar to fight the strongest version of the Vessel of Kulemak and defeat it.
After this you should be able to claim the Abyssal Lich ascendancy, though I can't say for sure how you claim it, since I've only defeated the Vessel of Kulemak three times, and the option to select an additional was bugged for me at the time for some reason.
Just as a brief explainer of what's happening with the corpses: when you interact with each one, then beat the boss, it adds a different set of potential desecrated modifiers to the loot you're getting when you accept the rewards or "Return the finger" and beat the final version, so, four unrevealed modifiers max. You can then reveal these at the Well of Souls after the fight.
During two of my three fights with the Vessel of Kulemak (playing Lich) I got The Unborn Lich Ravenous Staff, which has an ability to consume corpses for life and mana, plus a set affix that increases the magnitude of the desecrated modifiers you then reveal, making it pretty strong and farmable.
